Saturday, December 22, 2012

I'M GONNA HAVE A GOOD TIME

Today is my birthday. It's early in the morning and I have already received hundreds of birthday greetings. "Thank you" seems like not enough to say, but...thank you.

One of the things I do on my birthday is write my new year resolutions. Relax. I'm not going to share them with you. With one exception.

I plan to explore the world of webcomics in 2013. I'm setting aside some time every week to read a chunk of some webcomic or another. Research. Inspiration. A combination of both. In any case, I would truly appreciate your suggestions on worthy webcomics I can read for free.

As for my other resolutions, if I manage to keep them for a few months, then I'll share them with you.

11 comments:

I have a few suggestions for webcomics. I'm sure several people will recommend GIRL GENIUS ( http://girlgeniusonline.com/ ) A "Gaslight Fantasy" set in a place where Mad Scientists rule the world.

You might enjoy SPINNERETTE, ( http://www.spinnyverse.com/ ), a light-hearted super-hero comic about a girl who gains extra sets of arms. Most of the female characters would make Power Girl look anorexic, but it's fun, and makes frequent comic book reference. You have to read it if only for Black Tiger, ("It's just 'TIGER', dammit!")

On a less wacky note, I haven't read it in a while so I'm way behind, but I've enjoyed THE DREAMER, ( http://thedreamercomic.com/ ), a story about a modern day teenage girl who dreams that she's living during the Revolutionary War. Or is she a Revolutionary Era girl dreaming that she lives 200 years in the future? She's not sure, and falling in love with boys in both eras isn't helping her any. The art is very good, and the historical background to the Revolutionary scenes is well-researched and really makes it come alive.

And I also have to plug my own webcomic, HANNIBAL TESLA ADVENTURE MAGAZINE ( http://www.kurtoonsonline.com/ ), although it is with some embarrassment. I had problems with my website a few months ago and lost about two and a half years worth of pages. I've been slowly filling them back in while trying to do weekly updates of new materical, but it's still rather patchy. Hannibal Tesla is a pulp-era science fiction adventure whose title character is a two-fisted scientist in the mold of a certain Man of Bronze, but the storyline I'm currently working on, "Cat-Men from Mars", focuses on a Gutsy Girl Reporter investigating a Mystery in Space.

I'm still reading GIRL GENIUS, but frankly it's beginning to creak under its own weight.

Add me as another recommendation for Rucka and Burchett's LADY SABRE.

And two of my favorites that are now concluded but are still online in their entirety, for free (and also in print collections) are Warren Ellis and Paul Duffield's FREAKANGELS and Ursula Vernon's DIGGER (which recently won the Hugo Award.)

Wonderful thing about webcomics is you can see new talent in it's raw form just starting to develop. Horrible thing about webcomics is you can see new talent in it's raw form just starting to develop. If you can hate the sin (three pages of exposition) and love the sinner ("I gotta tell this story") then it's a wild ride. Sometimes I read them backwards. This has me starting with them at their talent highpoint, when they drew one page that made me want more, then go one page at a time to their start point. Obviously, this does horrible things to the story.